Narrow Escape

The boys and I delved into the first scenario of the mini cooperative game Dark Tomb the other day. (All components fit within a tin about the size of a modern smartphone.) Nathaniel is playing a spellcaster with a pet raven, Matthew is a rogue-like character, and I'm something akin to a ranger. The game plays quickly and we had fun discussing optimal tactics, but some lousy rolls set us back and nearly cost us a victory. As it stands, all three characters managed a narrow escape from the first dungeon. On to the second!

DC League

Next on my Sensible Soccer agenda is a league set in the Druid Cycle campaign world. I'm going to start small, with just four teams representing the three largest human cities in that setting: the Paladins and Imperials (Troya Nova), Racers (Riverton), and Golden Dragons (Prifddinas). That should be a manageable undertaking for the inaugural season, but I already have plans to expand the league with four new teams (a second franchise in Riverton along with three other cities) starting in Season 2. 

Free RPG Day

Get to your local game store for Free RPG day -- today!!!

Dark Tomb

We'll be doing some traveling this summer, but the boys and I will nevertheless have plenty of game action to occupy our downtime. A recent Kickstarter called Dark Tomb is perfect for travel: It's a cooperative, d20-based game that literally fits in your pocket!

D&D 2024

Over a decade ago, I invested countless hours in playtesting what would ultimately become Fifth Edition D&D. I submitted vast amounts of detailed feedback through many rounds of playtest materials. (Click the "5e" label and dive in to those earlier posts, if you dare!) The game that was published in 2014 was, in my opinion, an absolute masterpiece -- the best version of D&D in the game's long history. 

Fast-forward to the present. I wasn't terribly enthused by the prospect of the 2024 revamp of Fifth Edition, and some of what I was seeing in the Unearthed Arcana playtest PDFs was as troubling to me as anything from The Edition That Shall Not Be Named. But you know what? I watched this video and now I feel a bit better.

All I Really Want...

Random Thursday thoughts! All I really want -- aside from some patience, a way to calm the angry voice, and maybe deliverance -- is MultiVersus, but as a miniatures game. The obvious answer is CMON's Mayhem system, but it doesn't offer the full range of WB characters. In fact, it pales in comparison to what Restoration Games is doing with their Unmatched series these days.

Evercade Alpha

Evercade launched a revamped website today and it includes a bombshell development: They're getting into cabinets now! I don't know if I'll purchase the Evercade Alpha when it comes out in the fall, but damn, it's a pretty cool concept!

Tiffany, Heather, Cody, Dylan, Dermot, Jordan, Taylor, Brittany...

As part of my years-long (okay, decades-long) expansion of Druid Cycle history and lore, I've identified the reign of every Emperor/Empress of Troya Nova and every King/Queen of Teyrnas. Running through the lists of names, I can't help but speak them aloud in the cadence of the esteemed Cletus Spuckler when he calls to his prodigious brood...

Evercade Hall of Fame

Adding up all the games on all the carts, I probably have upwards of 200 retro games I can play on my Evercade systems. Of those games, I've completed probably about two dozen. Of those two dozen, only a select few merit inclusion in my new Evercade Hall of Fame -- games so awesome or so memorable that they rank among my favorite video games of all time, regardless of the era or system. 

Here is the inaugural class of Hall of Famers, presented in alphabetical order:

• Brave Battle Saga
• Captain Commando 
• Dragon View (Drakkhen II)
• Drakkhen
• Final Fight
• Flashback 
• Sensible Soccer

What's likely to be the next entry in the EHOF? Well, the first three Tomb Raider titles come out for Evercade in July...

Meet the Argos Achaians!

I had a lot of fun with a custom Sensible Soccer team featuring my childhood buddies from Horseheads. Although we lost our first World Cup tournament in the finals, we roared back the next time around to claim the Cup! For my next fantasy soccer experience, I'm going a bit further back in time...all the way to the Trojan War! Achilles, Odysseus, Ajax (the Greater and the Lesser) and all their companions from the Iliad will take the soccer world by storm as the Argos Achaians!

FCBD 2024

Heads up! It's Free Comic Book Day today!

A Sensible Obsession

Sensible Soccer is pretty much my new obsession. I have a huge list of custom teams, games, tournaments, and leagues in mind. One idea I'd love to explore is to create a soccer league based on the major human cities of the Druid Cycle campaign setting. Perhaps even a famous NPC or two might show up on the rosters! In the short term, however, I'm working on a Team USA -- complete with my 8-bit approximation of their real-life 2024 home and away kit -- populated by my neighborhood buddies from when I was a kid. Can't wait for my friends and I to start on the road to a World Cup!

Sensible Soccer

Sensible Soccer -- named for the company, although the game is pretty sensible too -- may just be one of the most perfect sports games I've ever played. I picked up an out-of-print Evercade cartridge basically just to get this game, and it hasn't disappointed. It's infinitely customizable and the gameplay is intuitive and fun. I foresee many, many tournaments and leagues in my future...

Back to the Tomb!

Just when I was wondering what else Evercade had up their sleeves...

Game Time = Family Time

Between Matthew's swim practices and meets, and Nathaniel's Boy Scout activities, and all the schoolwork for both of them, it's been tough to keep up any kind of momentum on our campaigns. It doesn't help that we're also juggling three campaigns at the moment, with the zombie-themed Dark Enigma (which also includes Amy) and two Druid Cycle games (one of which includes the boys' cousins). I've found myself kind of stressed out by the difficulty of getting everyone to the table, and when I gave it some more thought, I realized that game time is a proxy for family time. With the busy pace of life these days, we don't seem to have much time to sit down and just be together. 

Welcome Home

After their long trek through the snowy wilderness, our intrepid heroes have returned to the small town of Wenro, New York. Here's what awaits them...

Does this scene include all the zombie minis I have in my horde? No. No it does not.

Season 10 Awards

After an epic championship series, all that remains is to hand out the individual trophies for Season 10. 

Scoring Champion: Alf Smith, RW, Thistles
With a league-leading 18 goals and 36 points, the fiery forward won his first scoring championship, finishing five points ahead of runner-up Cyclone Taylor. Smith has always oozed with talent, but this season he put it all together -- and in doing so, he jumped from fourth all-time in goals to second, behind only the great Frank McGee of the Comets.

Forward MVP: Alf Smith, RW, Thistles
Bearcats phenom Joe Malone was the frontrunner for the first half of the season, but Smith sailed past him with an absolutely dominant finish. For the first time in his career, Smith was defensively responsible too, as evinced by his strong plus-minus (+8). 

Defenseman MVP: Dickie Boon, Bearcats
For the first time ever, the Victorias' Cyclone Taylor was not a top-three finalist for this award. Wow! This year's worthy runners-up were Fred Whitcroft of the Thistles (7 goals, 5 assists, +9) and Art Ross of the Bearcats (2 goals, 3 assists, and a league-leading +16). The winner, however, was the Bearcats' Boon, who put up Taylor-esque offensive numbers (8 goals, 9 assists) and finished second in the league in plus-minus (+12).

Goaltender MVP: Hap Holmes, Bearcats
Last season, the Vics' Bowse Hutton edged Holmes in the closest finish of all time for this award. Well, this season it was even closer! Holmes and Hutton both posted a .927 save percentage, but Holmes had a slightly better goals-against average (2.20 vs. 2.30). I don't track all high-danger/high-leverage saves, but I do make note of key moments when a goalie absolutely robs someone, and this year Holmes certainly had a lot more such "highlight reel" saves. So it's really a tossup, but I'm giving it to Holmes, who claims his second such trophy in his four-year career. 

Rookie of the Year: Frank Fredrickson, C, Bearcats
Fredrickson put up solid numbers across the board (7 goals, 13 assists, +6), although he definitely benefited from playing alongside Joe Malone. Even so, I'm very comfortable giving this award to Fredrickson over number-one draft pick Mickey MacKay of the Millionaires, who had good offensive numbers (7 goals, 6 assists), but had the second-worst plus-minus in the league (-17) and was a healthy scratch twice on a last-place Millies team.

Playoff MVP: Hugh Lehman, G, Thistles
Lehman outdueled the league's best goaltender, Hap Holmes, and finished his postseason run with a 2.25 goals-against average and a stellar .940 save percentage. He becomes the second player to win multiple Playoff MVP trophies (after -- who else? -- Cyclone Taylor) and he also has the distinction of being the first player to win major individual awards with two different teams; his first Playoff MVP trophy came when he was a member of the Millionaires. Had the Bearcats won the championship, this award would likely have gone to Malone (8 goals, 7 assists) for his offensive wizardry.

Quite a Saga Indeed!

Today I beat Brave Battle Saga, finishing off the final boss in a slog that took about a half-hour just for that one combat. 

I was rewarded with some fun cutscenes that wrapped up all the personal storylines. Families reunited! Old wounds healed! It was very sweet.

Yes, the main character's name is Tim, and yes, I had that Monty Python bit from Holy Grail running through my head the whole time...

The Curse Is Broken!

The Thistles are Creighton Cup champions! After ten seasons of futility and heartbreak, the league's most snakebitten team has finally won a title. In true Thistles fashion, they did it the hard way -- the really hard way.

Playing on the road in Game 1, the Thistles held a 2-0 lead late in the third period, but Bearcats captain Harry Trihey put his team on his back and scored twice to tie the game. In overtime, Scotty Davidson beat Hugh Lehman to give the Bearcats an improbable series-opening victory. The Thistles came home for Game 2 determined to get back on track. They got off to a great start when Jack Darragh scored on the team's very first shot. The teams traded goals throughout the game, with the Thistles managing to stay a goal ahead. In the waning moments of the third period, the Bearcats tied it yet again. This time, it was superstar Joe Malone tallying just seconds before the horn sounded. The stunned Thistles headed to overtime facing the possibility that they could be down by two games in this best-of-five series despite playing with the lead for about 90% of the time across both games. After two overtime periods, the game remained tied. Lehman and Bearcats netminder Hap Holmes made incredible saves, but at some point, one puck was bound to sneak through. Darragh ended the contest with his second goal of the game in triple overtime. The final score was 4-3 for the visitors. It was the longest game in league history, and Lehman set a record with 49 saves. Back in Bearcats territory for Game 3, the Thistles continued to roll by scoring again on their first shot. The Cats, however, notched the next three goals and skated away with an easy 3-1 win and a 2-1 series lead. Facing elimination, the Thistles had a must-win game at home, and they gutted out a 4-2 victory to force a winner-take-all Game 5, hosted by the Bearcats. 

Game 5 would prove to be an all-time classic. Late in the first period, the Thistles were hit with a double whammy when star defenseman Hod Stuart went down with a serious injury and the Cats' Dickie Boon scored after a desperate flurry of chances in front of Lehman. Stuart was ruled out for the remainder of the game, so the Thistles had to continue without one of their best players. Fortunately for them, their star forward stepped up his game; Alf Smith scored in the second period and racked up another one early in the the third to give his team a 2-1 edge. As the clock ticked away, I wondered if the Cats could manage to stage yet another amazing comeback to force overtime. Well, they sure did! The peerless Malone scored late in the frame, just as he had done back in Game 2, and the contest went to overtime. The first OT period was a quiet affair with only a couple of quality chances. In the second overtime, however, Smith broke in on Holmes with a chance to end the game and deliver a championship for his long-suffering team. (By this point, both Matthew and Nathaniel had come over to the table to witness these final dice rolls.) Smith knifed a shot past past Holmes's outstretched glove, and the game was over. It was a hat trick for Smith, but more importantly, it was a Creighton Cup for the league's unluckiest team. The curse has been broken!

Dune: Part 2

Dune is among my favorite novels. I love it on so many levels, not the least of which is that it's the primary literary inspiration for the Warhammer 40k universe. I'm such a Dune fan that I even adore the much-maligned 1984 movie, although it pales in comparison to Denis Villeneuve's more recent film. I'm so pleased that Dune: Part 2 is now premiering in theaters. The first part won six Oscars and introduced this story to a whole new generation -- including my own family! I can't wait to see what Villeneuve et al have in store for us in the second half!